Welcome to the making of a nation. American history in VOA special English. I'm Steve Ember. Today we tell about the movement for civil rights for black Americans.
The day is august 28th 1963. More than 250,000 people are gathered in Washington. Black and white, young and old, they demand equal treatment for black Americans. The nation's most famous civil rights leader, the Reverend Martin Luther King Junior is speaking.
"I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation".
Early in it's history, black Africans were brought to America as slaves. They were bought and sold like animals. By the time of America's Civil War in the 1860's, many had been freed by their owners. Many, however, still worked as slaves on the plantations or large farms of the south. By the end of the war, slavery had been declared unconstitutional. But that was only the first step in the struggle for equality. Most people of color could not get good jobs. They could not get good housing. They had far less chance of a good education than white Americans. For about 100 years, blacks made slow gains. Wide spread activism for civil rights did not really begin until after World War 2. During the war, black Americans earned respect as members of the armed forces. When they came home, many demanded that their civil rights be respected, too. An organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, led the way. In 1951, the organization sent its lawyers to help a man in the city of Topeka Kansas. The man, Oliver Brown, and 12 others had brought legal action against the city. They wanted to end racial separation in their children's schools. That policy was known as segregation. At that time, two of every five schools had all white students or all black students. The law said all public schools must be equal, but they were not. Schools for white children were almost always better than schools for black children. The situation was worst in southern states. The case against the city of Topeka, Brown versus the Board of Education, was finally settled by the nation's highest court. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that separate schools for black children were not equal to schools for white children.
